Of course, topics pertaining how to change phpBB itself to make it easier to use and modify belong here on area51.

What goes where

phpBB development occurs on multiple branches in parallel. The wiki page tbd has the breakdown. Please follow these guidelines when deciding which forum to post in:

If you found a bug in a released version of phpBB, file it in the tracker. Please search for an existing bug report first.

If you want to request a feature, search the tracker and check 3.1 status topic to see if your feature is already on the roadmap. If your feature already has a topic or a ticket, continue there; otherwise (you are proposing a brand new feature that was never discussed before) create a new topic in 3.2 discussion or 3.2 RFC and patch forum depending on the detail level of your proposal.

If you have a patch you want to submit for inclusion into phpBB, file a ticket in the tracker for the issue/enhancement (if there is not already one) and attach/link your patch to the ticket.

IRC channel

phpBB developers gather in #phpbb-coding channel on freenode. The IRC channel is sometimes quiet and sometimes lively. Some developers monitor the channel even when they do not participate. Please see here for instructions on joining the IRC channel.

Signature and avatar rules here on Area51 are similar to those at phpBB.com. Mainly:

Signatures

Signatures may contain up to five lines of text (of small or normal size) and/or one image, valid combinations include; a single image of no more than 60px high, 468px wide and 6kB (6000 Bytes) in size. Signatures containing an image this large may also include one line of small size text. Signatures containing an image of 30px high may include up to three lines of small size text or two lines of normal size text. Images of 15px height or less may allow up to three lines of normal size text or four lines of small size text. Animated images are not allowed.

Text sizes should be between 75% and 100% (small and normal).

Links in signatures are permitted to a maximum of four unique pages or sites. phpBB Team members are allowed additional links to aid in rendering support for phpBB. Such links may only be to *.phpbb.com or approved material. Linked sites may be commercial in nature. You may not include links in a way which suggests you offer official support, software, etc. for phpBB. You may not link to warez, porn or political, racist or other similar hate sites. Links are included in signature size limits.

Users abusing these rules will be warned.

Avatars

Users are permitted to utilise a gallery avatar or to link to one of their own. User defined avatars are to be no larger than 120 pixels square, contain no animation, contain no image which attempts to portray the user as having an official status here (e.g. mimicking ranks or copying avatars of team members), may not exceed 12KiB (12288 Bytes) in filesize and have a consistently high availability (i.e. links to images on slow servers or those prone to failure may be removed).

Users abusing these rules will be warned and/or may lose their avatar privileges.